Wingman
by MLP
Summary: More movie fic! I love Dick and prefer to allow him to grow up ala the progress we saw in season 3. He's still pure Dick of course but he's so much more than a pretty face. So...here's a conversation that needed to be had.


Veronica hadn't expected to fall back to sleep after Logan left but the athletic endeavor they'd engaged in for most of the previous night took its toll. Despite the ache that filled her chest the moment the door closed behind him, she'd managed to fall back into a deep, dream filled slumber.

Her dreams were such that when she did wake up again, mid morning, she was smiling. Until memory flooded back and the sense of loss took her breath away.

 _Its a hundred and eighty days, Veronica. What's a hundred and eighty days to us?_

"Six months of lonely celibacy and missing you, that's what." She muttered as she dressed. Six months in which he was stuck on a carrier with who knows how many cute, fit, horny young female ensigns, lieutenants and senior officers. Damn women in the military; who ever thought that was a good idea? Sure, feminism worked great in theory but in practice the idea of her pheromone soaked mate, attracting however many bored young women were also stuck on board that floating city made Veronica queasy.

 _Stop it, Veronica!_ She chided herself. _You are in favor of women's equal opportunity, even in the military! You are not one of those sad, frail females who think women's equality is fine as long as it keeps us out of harm's way. If you believe women are the equal of men, and you do, then its high time women took the same risks as men. If women want to fight, why should the fact of owning ovaries prevent them?_

 _Of course, its not the ovaries that bother me. It's the breasts…the lips…the legs…_

 _Stop it. He's on an aircraft carrier not a Carnival Cruise. Don't think of them as women. They're officers of the US Navy, dammit. Looking good in their dress whites...  
_

 _STOP IT. Logan's a pilot; if he were going to cheat on me, he'd find a way, even if there weren't any girls on that carrier. Either I trust him or I don't. And I do. I'd better; I tried not trusting him and it drove me crazy. A hundred and eighty days…_

Such was her state of mind as she wandered around the beach house gathering up her things that she barely noticed Dick glowering at her and when she finally did, she addressed him sharper than she may have intended.

"What?" she demanded, stuffing a paperback book into her backpack and dropping it onto the floor.

"I just think its rich," he said, "you, pretending to be all broken up that he's gone, like you're the only one who's ever given a damn."

"Oh, get a life, Dick."

"I have a life, Ronnie. And Logan has always been part of it. I'm not the one who took off. I'm not the one who sailed back in here a couple of weeks ago, after ten damn years of being incommunicado and pretending to be the only who cared whether or not he went down on murder charges. Who the fuck do you think you are?"

Veronica folded her arms and cocked her head, looking at the blond surfer through narrowed eyes. Grown up, angry Dick was a side of him she'd never seen. Her interest piqued.

"Oh, I remember;" Dick went on, "you're the great Veronica Mars. All you have to do is show up every decade or so and everything's hunky dory! Well, guess what? It is neither hunky nor dory, bigger boobs or not."

"Hey, _I'm_ the one who worked her ass off to prove his innocence." She reminded him. "All you did was keep him up to date on which social media currently made him look more guilty!"

"Aw, did I not seem worried enough about my best friend for you? I knew he'd get off."

"Did you? Why didn't you tell me that? Could have saved me a whole lot of leg work and worry."

"I knew they'd never be able to prove he did it because I knew he didn't."

"This is Neptune, Dick." Veronica shook her head at his naiveté. "Miscarriages of justice are the order of the day."

"There's a big difference between dropping bombs on ragheads from 12,000 feet and dropping a radio in his ex's bathtub." Dick continued as if she hadn't spoken. "If Logan were the type to off an annoying ex, I hardly think he would've started with Carrie."

"Really?" Veronica packed a lot of sarcasm into two syllables.

"So don't go crowning yourself 'the one who cares the most'. The last time you flew out of his life it took me months to put him back together. Months. Hell, I had to get married to do it! I'm not going that far again but I'll tell you this much, Mars: you break his heart again and I just may drop a radio in _your_ bathtub."

"You're threatening me, Dick?" Veronica tried to keep the amusement out of her voice. " _You're_ threatening _me?"_

"Oh, I forgot, I'm supposed to tremble at your wrath. Go ahead; cancel my credit cards. Steal my identity. Just leave Logan out of it. Now would be a good time to go if you're just goofing around."

That took the wind out of her sails.

"I'm not just goofing around." She said.

"Right, and you didn't leave Gia's with Piznakowski." Dick smiled mirthlessly at this hit. "Gossip still gets around, Ronnie."

"Piz and I broke up before Logan and I got back together." She said before she could stop herself. "I don't have to defend myself to you."

"Yeah, you do." Dick nodded. "You know why? 'Cuz I'm the one who stayed."

 _The villain is the one who splits and the hero is the one who stays._

"I'm the one who tricked him onto the balcony so housekeeping could clean up the mess you left." Dick said. " I'm the one who got him back into class. I'm the one didn't leave him on his own all summer. I'm the one who watched the SEALS running up and down the beach at Coronado with him and I'm the one he told first when he decided on OCS. You ever seen An Officer and A Gentleman? He said he wished it had only been that rough. I'm the one who celebrated with him when he got into flight school. The Navy has this ceremony when a pilot class graduates; when a guy earns his wings, he doesn't just pin 'em on. They pound 'em in; make those suckers a part of him. Their XO pins the wings on and then their families line up to pound 'em in. The parents usually just give 'em a ceremonial tap but _fuck;_ they pound 'em into each other till they bleed. It's pretty awesome. Moms, Dads, brothers and sisters cryin' all over the place. You know who was there to pound in Logan's wings? Me. Just me."

They stared at each other.

"I don't remember seeing you there, Veronica." Dick said. "I guess you were busy that day."

"Dick," Veronica started but he cut her off.

"I punched those wings so hard I damn nearly knocked him down!" He laughed. "Dudes aren't supposed to say shit like this but I was prouder of him that day than I've ever been of anything." He nodded at the memory. "So I punched him as hard as I could. And he got jets! You know only the top 2% of new aviators gets jets? Top 2% Ronnie. You have any idea how good you gotta be to land on a carrier? Pilots don't pick their call signs; their buddies do. Their squadron mates. Know what his is? Ironman. He doesn't just strap the machine on; he becomes part of it. You think you're such hot shit with your law degree? You've never even seen hot shit. So yeah; you want to mess with him? You are going to have to go through me."

Veronica looked at the tall blond standing resolutely in front of her. He folded his arms and stared down at her without a trace of laughter in his eyes. Despite her initial impression, Dick Casablancas had changed while she was away. He'd grown up.

"He's lucky to have as good a friend as you, Dick." She said.

He frowned.

"Is…this some kind of a trick?" He asked. "You using some kind of V. Mars mind trick on me?"

"No." she shook her head. "You're right. You're his best friend. You've stood by him all these years. You're a huge part of his life and if I'm going to be back in it…I won't put him in the situation where his best friend and his girlfriend don't get along. So here's my defense: I came here because he asked me to. I never doubted his innocence. I had no intention of getting involved with him again but…" she sighed. "Forces of nature are hard to resist. Rest assured: I am not messing around. I want only what's best for him and…I can see that he's got that in a best friend. Thank you for having his back."

Dick reeled back as though she'd hit him.

"Wha—"he sputtered. "When did you go and get all reasonable and stuff?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "I guess that's what I've been doing while I was away. When did you go get all caring and protective and stuff?"

"I have always been this way." He said. "Which you'd have known if you ever looked beyond my hotness and charm."

"If I ever had." She agreed.

"I suppose you're gonna go hang with your Dad at the hospital all day?" he asked.

"That was the plan." She nodded.

"You could come back here for dinner, if you want." Dick said, nonchalantly. "I'm just gonna grill up some steaks on the beach."

"That sounds great." She smiled. It actually did.

"I'll see you then." He returned her smile. "Say 'hi' to the Sheriff."

"Uh, yeah. I'll do that." She picked up her bag and started for the door.

"Ronnie." Dick called as she opened the front door. She turned back to him. "You want to pick up some steaks on your way back?"

"Of course Dick." She smiled.


End file.
